Sermon
Romans 8 | Grace: A New Life in Christ
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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You. Without question.
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That is the gospel and without question.
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That is good news.
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And that's what we're studying as we go through the book of Romans.
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Romans is a is a profound
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explanation
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of what is the reality for those who are in Christ,
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who we were and who we are.
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I don't know how one would say that.
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One chapter of the Bible is better than another.
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They're all inspired, but it feels like Romans is better than
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Romans, eight is better than all the others.
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The Word of God
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is the diamond to us from God.
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Romans eight is the sparkle of that diamond.
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I forgot who was, but someone said
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that if you should ever drop your Bible,
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it should naturally open to Romans eight because you've studied it so much.
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Romans eight is a it's a profound chapter.
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We're going to take two weeks to go through it.
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The first 20 verses today and the 29 through 39
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next week.
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Romans eight
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has the answer to every,
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evil that we go experience past, present, and future.
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Here's what I mean.
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When you're haunted by your past, Romans eight,
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there's no condemnation about your past.
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When you're frustrated by your present.
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Romans 828.
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We know that God works things together for good.
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When you're anxious about your future.
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Romans eight 3039.
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Nothing can separate you from the love of God.
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So whether there's this haunting thing.
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Yeah, but my past is
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as far as Christ is good. God is concerned.
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There's no condemnation about that.
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When you just frustrate the way things are right now,
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you can know that even in the frustration, God's working it together.
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Don't worry
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when you're anxious about the future. Hey,
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remember that God loves you and you can never be separated
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from that love and nothing to worry about.
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Do you understand? Yes.
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So it's going to be fun to unpack these things together.
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There's a lot to get through
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and so that we can get through it.
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Verse one.
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There is therefore now
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no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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When Paul says, there's therefore now the therefore is for a reason.
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It's therefore the reason of chapter seven.
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Chapter seven is this long
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treatise about what a failure he is.
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As a religious person, you just can't keep all of the religious law.
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He's a he's enslaved to his own sin nature.
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You just can't be right all the time.
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And at the end of it, he says, how do I get free from this?
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He says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Therefore, because of what Jesus has done,
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there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.
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That's what he's saying.
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When Paul uses the words, there's no condemnation.
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Think of it like this.
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There's not even one ounce of condemnation against you.
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If you're in Christ, there's not even one ounce
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of condemnation that the father that God the Father holds against you.
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There's not even a glimmer of a shadow.
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There is no condemnation.
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There's not even a hint of any condemnation against you
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if you're in Christ Jesus.
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Complete freedom
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from the sin of our past, already freed from the sin of our future.
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There's no condemnation.
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Please don't ever erroneously think
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because this line of thinking is directly from the devil.
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It's a lie from the devil.
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When we start thinking,
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okay, now I know why I lost my job.
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I know why I'm sick.
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Because God's punishing me
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for what I've done.
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That is the life of the devil. Why?
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Because there's no condemnation.
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God does not condemn you over what you've
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done, and is not condemning you over what you will do,
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because he took the condemnation that we do deserve and put it on his son,
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so that now when we're in His Son, he, Jesus, already absolved
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the condemnation, though, so that for us there is now therefore no condemnation.
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God doesn't hold grudges.
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God doesn't get payback.
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Don't ever fall
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prey to the devil that makes you think, well, yeah, it's because I screwed up.
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So God's punishing me now. That's not how God works.
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There may be
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legitimate natural consequences to our actions.
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And sometimes God lets us feel the full weight of those.
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Sometimes he's merciful, and we don't.
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When those times come, here's what we do.
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We repent.
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God, I agree with you.
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And then we say, father, give me all that your grace allows.
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And let God temper back then natural consequence.
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Does that make sense? You follow me.
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But as far as God getting upset and leveling something against you,
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he doesn't work that way. There's no condemnation.
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You follow me? Yes.
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I hope you're understanding the liberation of this.
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No longer does anybody who is in Christ
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walk around with oh my gosh, God is still
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I gotta I got a lot to make up for it.
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Like when
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when am I going to be able to appease him?
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Those are lies from the devil.
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And as long as the devil can convince you that that's who God is
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and that's his character,
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you will live under the shout of condemnation that is not yours to own.
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That's already been leveled against Christ.
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And he has set you.
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He set me completely free of it.
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No, not even a shadow.
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Not an ounce.
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Don't own something that belongs to another.
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Your condemnation belongs to Jesus.
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That's pretty good news, Billy, right?
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Yeah.
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I don't watch this.
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Verses two three, four
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for, I'm going to
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Paul is going to write a like he's he's he's very verbose.
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There's a lot of words he uses and he writes like a lawyer.
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I'm going to read it all and you might get lost in the words.
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We're going to come back and talk through it all.
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For the love. The spirit of life has set
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you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,
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could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh
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and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh in order
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that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled
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in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
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You got it?
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Let me, let me, let me slow down and explain some stuff.
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Paul uses this word law, but he use it in two different ways.
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And it's very important to understand the ways he uses this word law.
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One of the ways Paul uses
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the word law is the driving force and the impulse.
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It just is what it is.
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We don't establish it.
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We haven't declared it.
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It just is like the law of gravity.
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There's no act of Congress or Municipality.
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That said, from this day forward, gravity exists, right?
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It did.
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The second way the law is used as as a legal rule
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and a boundary like the speed limit.
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Municipalities decide what the speed limit is.
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So if that's not a natural, that's just what the city has said.
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And so if you bypass that, you've broken the law.
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You follow.
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Okay.
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So in it, when Paul says in and verse two,
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for the law of the spirit of life has set you free.
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In Jesus, in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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He's using the first idea, the driving force, the impulse
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for the driving force of the spirit that is now in you because you're in
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Christ, has set you free because you used to live
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according to the driving force than the impulse of sin.
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You understand?
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So the driving for the law that was at work in you
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before you came to Jesus was the driving force of sin.
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But now that you're in Christ, there's a new driving force there, new law
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inside you, a driving force, an impulse.
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Okay.
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And the
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reason Jesus had to do that is this verse three, For God has done
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what the law, the legal rules and boundaries
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were not able to do by sending his son.
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So when, when God's when the father sent the son and the son died on the cross,
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he fulfilled all the legal rules and boundaries of the written religious law.
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He fulfilled it all.
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So now when we're in Jesus, he's fulfilled all the legal rules and boundaries.
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So now I'm free to put to death the old driving force of sin,
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and live in new life of the new driving force of the spirit.
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You follow?
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Am I clear?
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I gotta be clear on this.
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Anybody any questions?
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All right.
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So now we follow this new law according to the spirit.
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When we went through
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chapter seven last week, I don't know if any of you picked up on it.
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There are 47 personal pronouns that Paul uses in chapter 747.
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I, me, my.
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And it's all about his failure.
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It's all about his sin.
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He cannot make his life right, for it's all self-focused
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because he's talking about how wretched he how many we get that we get.
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If you and I can't live up to our own standard,
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how do we think we're gonna live up to the God standard?
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And so, Paul, 47 personal pronouns
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in chapters one through seven of Romans.
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The Spirit of God.
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The spirit is only used two times in this chapter alone.
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Chapter eight. It use 19 times.
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Here's why.
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Because Paul is drawing a line in the sand between the self and the Spirit of God.
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He's making the
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distinction in this in your self, in your flesh.
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You have no power
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with the Spirit of God.
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You have both power and capacity.
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I have a new power in me.
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I don't have to live that way and not have a new capacity.
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I'm able to, not because of who I am, because who I'm in.
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You follow.
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Sometimes I feel like
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I get a lot more excited than you do.
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For the mind set on the flesh.
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This is what this is.
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Verse seven.
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Let me go back to five.
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Let me go to verse five.
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For those who live
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according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.
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But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit.
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For to set your mind on the flesh is death,
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but to set your mind on the spirit is life, and peace.
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For the mind that is set on the flesh
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is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
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Indeed, it cannot submit to God's law.
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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
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Let me show you what this is saying.
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When Paul uses this word flesh, the mind that set on the flesh,
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what he's talking about is, is the mind that still on just worldly stuff.
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And Jesus addressed this back in Matthew seven,
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and in Matthew seven he says, the mind that is set on the flesh,
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the worldly stuff, is worried about what you're going to wear.
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You're worried about what you're going to eat.
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You're worried about what you're going to drive.
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You're worried about your retirement, right?
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It's all the things that we get wrapped up in in this world.
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And he said, the mind that set on the flesh is
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it's just it's just preoccupied with all this stuff.
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And he said that
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mind is hostile to God, not contrary to God.
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Actual hostility towards him, towards God,
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because a mind that is set in the flesh, the things of this world
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is so worried about the things that this rule
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that they cannot live by faith.
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And the Bible says the only way to please God.
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Hebrews 11 six is by faith.
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It's the mind that says.
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But what about my pursuit of all the
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all the important things in life?
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And when that is our mindset,
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when that's our drive,
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it's an indication we are living according to the flesh.
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And we cannot please God that a life that's driven by the pursuit
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of the things that is hostile to God,
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not just contrary. And
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and so the
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it's a mind that set by what can I acquire,
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what can I enjoy.
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What can be my acquisition?
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What.
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Here's how you know where your mind is.
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Just as a real simple question.
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Ask yourself what dominates dominates
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my mind and heart.
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What dominates it?
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The things of this world.
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Eat. Sleep. Drink.
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Live. Drive.
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Retire. Future.
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When? That's it.
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We cease living by faith.
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And the faith is the only way to please God.
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A life that's focused on that cannot please God.
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You understand?
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And it's just.
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That's how we used to live.
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And like this law in us that drove us to all this earthly stuff.
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But now
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in Christ, there's a new law in us.
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I don't have to live obsessed and consumed with the acquisition.
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Of things.
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Worry.
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The verses nine and 11.
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You, however,
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are not in the flesh but in the spirit.
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If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
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Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
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Verse ten.
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But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead
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because of sin, the spirit of the spirit is life.
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Because of righteousness.
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If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
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he raised Jesus Christ Jesus from the dead will also
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give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
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Here's what he's saying.
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When someone accepts Jesus as the leader of their life, immediately
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the Bible teaches that the father implants his spirit in them.
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A new law.
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When that spirit is inside of us,
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we're no longer slaves to the old law.
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And because we're not slaves to the old law.
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We have a new impulse, as you actually have the desire
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to walk rightly before God.
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Not because you have to, not because you're religious,
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but because there's a new driving law in your inside.
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Right? Do you understand?
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Some of you feel this,
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that there's a new impulse in you.
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You're not under compulsion because there's no condemnation,
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but there's a desire.
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There's a true want to.
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That's the Holy Spirit in you.
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The purpose of the Holy Spirit in us is to make us holy.
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That's the purpose of the spirit.
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Now, we think that if we allow God to our lives, we will be happy.
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The purpose of the
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Holy Spirit in us is not to make us happy, but to make us holy.
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Here's the good thing.
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The quickest way to happiness is holiness.
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Some of the most miserable people on the planet
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are Christians who are not walking in line with the spirit.
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They're miserable.
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And if that's one of you,
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I have a lot of churches I could recommend for you
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rather than their.
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I, like God, said I'm a put my spirit in you because make you holy.
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Because the quickest way to your happiness is holiness.
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And this is the new life that he's given us.
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And so we don't have to obey
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the impulses of the old life anymore.
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Now look at verses 12 and 13.
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Oh, let me say this. Let me say this is important.
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Verse
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one says, there's no condemnation, right?
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This passage talks about the Holy Spirit's invigoration.
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So gives us no condemnation.
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Plus the Holy Spirit invigoration equals life transformation.
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That's how this works.
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Some of us have tried to transform our lives by good behavior
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and new habits and self-discipline, and all of that falls
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far short, right?
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And what Scripture tells us is, listen,
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in Christ there's no condemnation.
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And when you take no condemnation and have the Holy Spirit's invigoration,
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that's what creates the life transformation, not because you have to,
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because you're under no obligation, because there's no condemnation.
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Now there's a new law inside.
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So I want to do you understand?
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And so then what we have to do.
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Because now there's a new one too.
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So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh.
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The old law to live according to that old law of flesh.
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For if you live according to that flesh, you'll die.
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Pause button.
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When Adam was in the Garden of Eden
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and God said, if you eat of this tree, you will surely die.
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He ate of the tree.
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Did he die immediately?
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No, because God wasn't talking about immediate death.
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He was talking about spiritual death.
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And he says, if you live according to that law of sin,
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you are dead spiritually and forever separated from me.
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So but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
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what you live.
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You live.
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So the old law that was in us before we came to Jesus,
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if you've come to Jesus, this old law was, was, was, was raging inside.
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Now you come to Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
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There's a new law. Here's what happens. The old law.
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The old law screams that you everyday feed me.
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Pay attention to me.
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Don't let me die.
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Because the new law in us, the Spirit of God in us,
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is starting to starve out the old one.
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And that old one doesn't want to die too quick.
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And so that old one screams,
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don't ignore me.
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Pay attention to me.
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I still matter.
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I still got you.
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Feed me
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right.
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That's the war that goes on.
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And we have to work
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with the Holy Spirit's work.
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To allow that newness to start to really go.
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So it's like when you're right is if you ride a bicycle uphill.
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That wasn't electric.
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You ride a bicycle uphill and you're working hard.
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It's really easy.
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And the moment you stop pedaling, what happens is,
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yeah, you slow down and you fall over or go backwards.
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So the Holy Spirit is working in us
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to ride that bike uphill to learn a new life.
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So we work with the mechanism of it.
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The moment we stop working in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.
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The old analogy is you got two dogs, you only feed one.
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Which one is going to live?
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The one you feed.
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Other parts of Scripture says, put to death the deeds of the body.
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Starve it out, starve it,
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though you've been made to act like it
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and take this old life and starve that to death.
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And as you do, it will scream at you, and it will yell at you,
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and it will demand attention, and it will demand to be fed.
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And you just keep starving it out.
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Not because it makes you a good Christian because there's no condemnation anyway,
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but because it allows the
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new law, new spirit to thrive.
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You understand?
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This stuff is so good.
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Verses 1417.
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Look at this.
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It's a long section. Let me read it.
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We'll talk about it.
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For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters.
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Children of God.
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Let me just.
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I just had of the slide.
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Though.
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Every human is a creation of God.
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Not everybody is a child of God.
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Only those who have a relationship with Jesus
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by because of, through faith,
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because of grace, is a child of God.
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So everyone is a creation.
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Children of God
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are those every relationship through Jesus.
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So we clear
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for all who are led by the Spirit of God, our sons and daughters of God.
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For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
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but you have received the spirit of adoption
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as sons and daughters, as children by whom we cry, ABBA, father.
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The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
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And if children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided
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here it is we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
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Let me unpack this.
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When Paul talks about adoption,
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adoption was not it was not known in the Jewish world.
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Jews had no concept of adoption.
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Okay, once born in the family or the family, there was no adoption.
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The Jewish and the Roman world, this was a huge thing.
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Adoption was huge and they understood what it meant.
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Let me tell you what adoption meant in Rome with Romans.
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When they would adopt someone, a benevolent person or family of means
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would find somebody worthy of adoption.
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Not just children, but grown adults.
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And they would, offer to adopt them into their family.
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And when that transaction happened, all of the debt, all of the shame,
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all of the family baggage was erased from every account.
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And the one who was adopted in the family.
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Now was credited with every right,
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every financial blessing, every authority, as if a blood child.
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That's the power of adoption.
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That everything that was is no more. Why?
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Because we know. Verse one. No condemnation.
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And then the family I'm adopted into.
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I now have all the rights, all the privilege,
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all the authority of that family.
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And Paul will say, if we are children of God,
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adopted by him, we are heirs of God.
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And what co-heirs with Christ
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get this as adopted children.
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We have every blessing
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that Jesus has is ours.
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The relationship.
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Y'all believe you're getting it.
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The relationship that the son has with the father
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is our relationship with the father.
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Heirs of God.
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Co-heirs with Christ.
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Every spiritual blessing,
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every ounce of beauty of relationship and authority that Jesus has
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with the father I have with the father, and you have with the father in Christ.
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Amazing.
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So why do we walk around like the dirty step kids?
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I don't want to buy anybody.
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I lost my place here.
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I want to understand what this is.
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We've been adopted.
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And so now we cry out, ABBA, father!
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The Jewish
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mind held God in such high esteem they wouldn't even say his name
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like it was so holy or didn't belong on dirty mouths.
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Keep your name out of my mouth. No.
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They would just write the name.
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They wouldn't even say it.
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So for the Jew, this is like.
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What are you saying?
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What Paul is saying here.
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Now we call the father ABBA.
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It means daddy.
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It's a it's a very intimate term of affection as a child.
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As his beloved father. Daddy, Papa.
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Now, because I've been adopted.
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I'm not an outsider.
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I am a co-chair with Christ himself.
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So that now my relationship to the father
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is as my papa.
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Yeah, man.
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I still remember when my boys were little, and I would come through the door
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and they would run on daddy.
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That's who
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the father is for those in Christ.
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His daddy.
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Man, I know that some of you
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carry around a pretty profound daddy wound.
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And you know what it's like.
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Unfortunately,
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to have a father who's disappointed in you.
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And you know what it's like to have a daddy who at one time
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had high hopes for you.
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But you feel like all you've done.
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Is confirmed.
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Every negative thing he thought and said.
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And I'm sorry.
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That is not the father.
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It is a father who loves you so much.
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He placed all of your condemnation
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on his beloved son.
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Who adopts you now
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into his family and says all that stuff is gone.
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You have all the rights,
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all the relationship, all my love.
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How proud I am of you that I had for my son.
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I have for you.
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So yeah, I am your papa.
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I'm such a good papa.
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Isn't that good news?
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Oh, I forgot this part.
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All this is ours, providing we suffer with him.
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I got it.
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What?
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Like, go back to the no condemnation and go back to the papa on the daddy.
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And that gets all the adoption. I like that.
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Suffer with you? Yeah.
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You know why? Because suffering is part of belonging.
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And the Bible
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says if Jesus suffered, we shouldn't think we're going to get out of it.
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First Peter two. First Peter four.
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So same thing.
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Let's go on.
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Verse 18.
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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
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are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
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He says, look, here's the deal.
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Our suffering is on one side, and this scale
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and all this glory that's waiting for us is on this side.
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And he says, the suffering is not the need.
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Done. Compare.
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Paul said the same thing in Second Corinthians.
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This light and momentary suffering pales in comparison to the weight of glory
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that's ours. There's going to be those times.
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But in comparison to eternity,
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light and momentary,
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we're going to talk about that in a minute.
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I want to come back to it, but I just need you to say that.
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Look at verses 19 through 22.
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Let me just read this
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verse.
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For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing
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of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility.
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Not willingly, but because of him who suggested it in hope
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that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption,
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and obtain a freedom of the glory of the children of God.
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I'm going to explain this just saying with me.
-
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together
-
with the pains of childbirth until now. Here's what he's saying.
-
There's a progression in place here and the progression.
-
Verse 18, verse 20, in verse 21 says suffering, futility, corruption.
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There's a downward slide of this whole thing.
-
Now when God created everything, he pronounced it good, which meant beautiful.
-
It was perfect.
-
But then sin entered the world.
-
And ever since sin enter the world, it's been this slide of suffering,
-
futility and corruption.
-
So much so that creation is groaning out because of this right now.
-
Like the creation was like, oh, and here it's the law.
-
The second law of thermodynamics is at play.
-
Does it at smart people?
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Nobody smart.
-
I love my church.
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But the second law of thermodynamics.
-
Anybody know what is it?
-
Okay, well, I love my church.
-
I'll tell you.
-
It's the law of chaos or the law of entropy.
-
What's the second law of thermodynamics says it's left unto itself.
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If things deteriorate, they don't get better.
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That's why evolution has such a hard time with science.
-
Left unto itself, things deteriorate.
-
They don't get better.
-
It's the second law of thermodynamics, and it is the law.
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And what the Scripture is saying is because sin entered the world,
-
we experienced this not just creation,
-
but you and I.
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If you're old enough,
-
you know you're experiencing the law of entropy
-
and the law of deterioration,
-
right?
-
He said. Sin enter the world.
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This is a result.
-
And what we see is this groaning and it's going from
-
it's going from suffering to telling you to create to corruption.
-
Verse 23,
-
and not only the creation, but we ourselves,
-
who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait
-
eagerly for the adoption of sons or the redemption of our bodies.
-
Like we experience this and we're groaning for this.
-
Like God, you got to do something at some point.
-
You got to make stuff better because this is just this is horrible.
-
As Paul writes, there's three groanings
-
he mentions and he mentions the third groaning here, watch this verse 26.
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Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses,
-
for we don't know how to pray for what we ought,
-
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
-
So there's three groanings that are taking place the creation's groaning.
-
We're groaning, and the Holy Spirit's groaning.
-
The creation is groaning because it's going through entropy,
-
and it's waiting for this new childbirth of a new creation.
-
We groan because we're experiencing the same entropy, and because of sin,
-
we're just deteriorating and we're groaning for this new life
-
in heaven, this this new reality.
-
But the Holy Spirit groans.
-
Let me tell you how the Holy Spirit groans.
-
There's two ways. One
-
new leader live off with verse 27,
-
and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit,
-
because the spirit intercedes for the saints
-
according to the will of God, the Holy One of the ways the Holy Spirit grows.
-
And this is happening right now, the one of the ways the Holy Spirit grows
-
is he enters the Holy Spirit, intercedes
-
in our prayers, and translates our prayers to the father.
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Because sometimes, you know, I don't know what we should pray,
-
and sometimes we pray things that are not the father's will.
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And so the Holy Spirit sits there in intercession and says, no, no, no.
-
We we all know Carl didn't always talk about
-
let me interpret his prayers.
-
The God did this for Paul in the Bible.
-
The Bible says that Paul had this thorn in his flesh.
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He prayed three seasons of his life that God would take it away.
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And he finally says, God never took it away, but he gave me grace.
-
Here's what was happening as he's
-
praying in the sea these drought seasons that God would take this thorn away.
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The Holy Spirit's going, he is you
-
know, God.
-
Father. We know that's not that's not what you want for Paul.
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That's what he thinks. That's what you want.
-
He thinks that you want to heal him.
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But we both know that's not what's.
-
So let me tell you what. He's really praying. He's really praying for Grace.
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He doesn't know. He doesn't know he's praying for grace.
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So, father, let me interpret this prayer.
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Give him grace.
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And I was like, yeah, that's what I want to do all the time.
-
If we would just agree with me and the Holy Spirit, intercede and groan.
-
So our prayers are in line with the father's wills that make sense.
-
That's why sometimes when you are praying, nothing happens
-
because the Holy Spirit's interceding for us
-
and turning our words into the father's will and groaning on our behalf.
-
Now verse
-
28 is going to be the kicker that's going to make that okay
-
the other way. The Holy Spirit groans.
-
And I'm not going to get into this right now.
-
I just need to address it is through what the Bible calls the gift of tongues.
-
And the gift of tongues.
-
Primarily in the Bible
-
is the ability, the supernatural be that God gives someone who doesn't know
-
a known language to speak that language for the proclamation of the gospel.
-
That's primarily how it's used.
-
There are a few other instances where there is a supernatural gift
-
given to a person that utters a language that's known to God, and no human,
-
so that they can communicate to God in a very direct way
-
without the interpretation necessarily, of our normal prayer life.
-
The interesting thing about that is when someone genuinely, you know
-
and don't think what you see on television
-
is the way it goes, because that's ridiculous. But,
-
generally when someone expresses that,
-
they don't even know what they're saying, it's just this language to God.
-
And, and it's it's not very often.
-
And it is.
-
Please understand the that gift of tongues
-
is not by any stretch, any sign of any special anything.
-
Paul said, I wish that's the least gift you would want.
-
I wish you would really have the gift of prophecy,
-
which is to interpret God's Word and tell the truth of it. So.
-
But that is so all of that, okay, all of that
-
gets us to the crux of of this section in verse 28.
-
And we know
-
we don't hope, we don't think
-
we know that for those who love God, all things work
-
together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
-
This is the first you need to have underlined.
-
You need to have memorized.
-
You need to have highlighted.
-
This is a verse you got to come back to.
-
There are someone who said that this verse
-
is the soft pillow for a tired heart.
-
There are some things we will never know
-
and we got to be okay without knowing them.
-
When we get to heaven, you and I will not know all things.
-
There's only one who knows all things, and that is God.
-
There are some things we don't know and we will never know
-
when we got to be okay with that.
-
There are some things we should know as Christians.
-
We should know Ephesians for spiritual warfare first Corinthians 12.
-
Spiritual gifts. There are some things we should know,
-
and though there are some things we don't know
-
and we'll never know, there are some things we should know.
-
There are some things we do know.
-
And one of the things we do know is Romans 828.
-
We know that God works all things together for the good of those
-
who love him, and are called according to his purpose.
-
When the Bible says, when Paul users work together, this is the you.
-
We have to understand this.
-
All things work together.
-
That word work together is a Greek word called synergy.
-
Oh, synergy.
-
And it means literally to combine according to the activity of two or more
-
agents to produce a joint effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.
-
Okay, in simple terms,
-
it means the sum of a whole bunch of stuff
-
is greater than the
-
pain of the individual parts.
-
God works all of the pain points
-
of the individual parts together and synergize.
-
Is it for something good
-
that's working together?
-
That's synergy.
-
You and I live in the world
-
of our reality, of the individual pain points,
-
and all we see is the individual pain point.
-
And because we live in this world of individual pain points,
-
when we experience those pain points, we cry out, God, why,
-
oh God, how could you let God?
-
Why are you allowing God step in?
-
God, do something. God, this isn't right.
-
This isn't good at all
-
because all we're doing is resisting in the individual pain points.
-
But what the truth of the Bible says is God works all those individual pain
-
points and sinner Jesus, all of them. He doesn't.
-
He doesn't erase them.
-
He doesn't remove them.
-
He works within all those of individual pain points and synergize
-
all of it together for good.
-
Do you understand?
-
When we cry out, God, change the pain, pain point,
-
change the pain point, change the pain point.
-
God says, no, that's not what I have ever said.
-
I will do what I will do.
-
When you go through loss,
-
when you're in, feel like you're not wanted, when you experience
-
pain, when you're sick, when you're all these things.
-
I am energizing it all.
-
You're not going through it because I'm condemning you.
-
Because there's
-
no condemnation
-
and because I love you so much.
-
You are my son and my daughter,
-
and you have all the rights of relations with you that Jesus has.
-
And I synergize everything in Jesus's life.
-
Then Jesus go through pain.
-
You think the garden, the crucifixion wasn't pain.
-
And he said, father, take it from me.
-
And the foe said, no, I am using it for good.
-
And so because he suffered so well, we.
-
Are you understanding?
-
Romans 828.
-
Can I trust God's synergy?
-
That's the question.
-
And when you know that fact.
-
I'm not frustrated in my present.
-
Because God,
-
in this present moment right now is synergize ING it
-
for those who love him.
-
If you don't
-
love Christ and are the fathers through the son,
-
your pain point will be all you know
-
and it will get too much for you.
-
For me, I know.
-
Now let me say this.
-
Synergize with all things together for good.
-
Here's the thing.
-
God is the one who defines what is good,
-
not you. And I.
-
Because our default of the definition of good
-
is ease, comfort, pleasure.
-
Right.
-
And so God says, no, I'm standardizing it for good.
-
But I'm going to be the definer of good, not you.
-
And that's why the Bible says, Jesus, for the joy
-
set before him endured the cross, because that cross was not good pleasure.
-
More fun.
-
God defined it as good.
-
And that gave
-
Christ joy to go through that pain point
-
because he knew father was synergize ING it for good.
-
That's the promise of God
-
for those who are in Christ.
-
When we go through those pain
-
points, we want a miracle.
-
A miracle is when God intervenes
-
in the normal stream of human history and changes he.
-
He changes the natural laws.
-
He steps in and changes the natural laws.
-
That's not oftentimes how God works.
-
It's a miracle.
-
The way God energizes things is through his providence, not his miracle.
-
Providence says this Providence says I will.
-
I won't circumvent natural law and do a miracle.
-
I will work within natural laws to synergize all things together.
-
So when we go through those pain points, we want them here.
-
God, God, step in right now.
-
God change you right now. God move right now.
-
God act right now.
-
And God says, I'm not going to, providentially all synergize
-
all things together.
-
Trust me in this I love you.
-
You're mine. I got you.
-
Let me work my providence.
-
Be patient and trust.
-
I am providentially
-
synergize all things.
-
And the question we have to ask
-
ourselves, is that enough?
-
Is it enough for you to trust him that way?
-
There's a lot we could still talk through.
-
But I just want to leave you this.
-
If you are in Christ, there's no condemnation.
-
You got nothing to make up for.
-
If you're in Christ,
-
you have been adopted as his child.
-
And all the rights
-
and blessings of Christ himself are yours.
-
As an co-heirs with Christ.
-
And right now he is synergism.
-
Even your pain points for good.
-
You can trust him
-
and I invite you to
-
when you get this it.
-
I don't know how to explain it.
-
It changes your entire perspective about life, about your life and about the world.
-
There
-
is so much stability and there's so much comfort
-
and there's so much ease and there's so much liberation.
-
When you know this.
-
When you start to embody this truth,
-
it's just beautiful.
-
Some of you are or are way too
-
miserable and too stressed and too worried.
-
Because you have not internalized the truth of these passages,
-
it's yours for the taking.
-
Why don't you pray with me?
-
Father, I thank you
-
that you've loved us with an everlasting love.
-
I thank you that you are for us and not against us.
-
I think that we can stand before you with no condemnation,
-
and that we don't have to make up for anything of our past,
-
and that we don't have to ensure anything of our future.
-
I think that you've chosen us
-
and adopted us as your children, your kid,
-
your son, your daughter.
-
That you are right now, in this moment, synergize
-
all things, even the pain points for good.
-
Father, we want to believe that we have to believe it.
-
And we want to trust you.
-
So would you.
-
Here in this moment, these hearts that are turning
-
entrust to you.
-
Friends, I don't invite you in this moment
-
to step into this new life.
-
It begins with this
-
just saying to the Father God, I agree.
-
I have lived outside of the boundaries of your law and I'm a sinner.
-
And I accept what Jesus did on the cross
-
for my forgiveness.
-
Thank you that I stand before you
-
with no condemnation, completely free.
-
Then tell him
-
thank you that you have adopted me into your family,
-
and I receive all the spiritual blessings
-
that you would give me.
-
Not because I'm good,
-
but because I'm adopted.
-
And I will trust.
-
And I will rest the best I can
-
in the confidence and conviction that you are.
-
Synergize
-
all things together for good.
-
And I allow you to define what is good.
-
Help me love you more
-
and trust you more fully.
-
Father, I thank you for this day.
-
I thank you for these moments.
-
I thank you for your word that continues to speak to us.
-
I pray, father, that as we take steps
-
into living out and flesh out this new life,
-
that you would constantly remind us through the spirit within us,
-
that there is no condemnation, that we are your kids, that your synergize.
-
All things are working things together.
-
We can trust you.
-
You are a good father and you do that which is good.
-
Have us,
-
have us.
-
We give ourselves to you.
-
In your name I pray.
-
Amen.
-
Listen, I love you and I love going through scripture with you.
-
It's so good. Yeah.
-
Is Romans eight not just wonderful?
-
It's incredible.
-
I know some of you do.
-
I want you all to love it.
-
Like this is just good stuff.
-
So here's this week.
-
Read Romans eight, the whole the whole 39 verses.
-
Okay?
-
Let the Holy Spirit bring to your remembrance what we talked about
-
and then read ahead for what we're going to talk about next week.
-
It just gets better from here.
-
If you know it, it just gets better from here.
-
And live that live.
-
As though there's no condemnation
-
and live as a full fledged
-
child of the father.
-
You understand I'm saying not a
-
all the rights, all the earth are all
-
of Christ himself.
-
It's amazing.
-
And then be convinced that this week when stuff happens,
-
your mind is going to go immediately to war.
-
I can't wait to see how you're going to synergize this one.
-
But I know you are.
-
You understand that he is.
-
We're celebrating and he is worthy to to trust him.
-
All right, let's let's sing.